Written between October and April...
Doing Good Work: After the Storm
On social media, I am constantly reminded that people are very busy around here taking care of their neighbors…even several months after the Storm. They are slopping mud, chainsaw-ing debris, collecting, distributing and doing good work. I have felt like a shlub. I keep feeling like I am beyond shoveling mud and so am not doing the hard work.
My do-gooder work has had to do with the organization with which I am heavily involved… Local Cloth. We had 70+ vendors in our retail shop that lost their inventory and part of their livelihoods. A small team of us took it on to get the word out and start selling their goods at far flung markets around the state.
Our first market was in Charlotte —I mentioned that last issue. It was fun, and good to be away. Local Cloth was really lucky to have an administrator who lived outside the disaster area and had her wits about her to get us there and other places. Plus we had a great silly time and made some money for our artists and made new friends for the organization.
Our next endeavor was the “Big Fiber Giveaway.” A woman in upstate New York organized a donation event at the New York State Sheep & Wool event aka Rhinebeck where they asked shoppers to buy a skein of yarn for themselves and one for the folks in WNC. It grew. By the time she was ready to come on down, she had eight plus pallets of wool, equipment, fabric, and tools. A former owner of a local yarn shop put the word out and she showed up with a camper van and trailer filled with goods sent from all over the country. It was a bit overwhelming.
Meanwhile, we were negotiating getting into the Folk Art Center where the event was scheduled to occur on the then closed Blue Ridge Parkway. We were trying to be grateful and hopeful and helpful and we all—the Folk Art Center people and the event people—were a wee bit frustrated. We just wanted to be able to distribute crafts supplies to folks who had been impacted by the Storm.
On the day after the national election, we were at the Folk Art Center at dawn, greeted by a trucker who had gotten through various barriers and delivered the goods to appreciative crafters. While I knew that he and I had not voted the same way (he was wearing a Trump hat) the day before, the fact that he got the goods to people who needed this uplift, made us all feel better by the end of the day.
This three-day event supplied machines and tools, yarn and fabric, and some unrelated goods. Distraction from the election and from the Storm recovery for five hours a day was a gift. People were so grateful. I was sleepless one night wondering how we were going to manage this largesse, but on Friday, hundreds of people showed up, leaving with bags of goodies. Many said it was the best day they'd had since the Storm. Saturday and Sunday were equally busy. Teachers, artists, people who had had serious damage—all came and thought about being creative. It was remarkable.
Our volunteers felt great being there and many from the Folk Art Center said it was a really great event for them to be a part of as well. Win—win—win. Monday morning, we cleaned out the auditorium and took away 6+ bins -- that's all that was left! And we raised ~$6000 in the three days of the event to support our rebuild and the artists who lost their inventory in the storm.
More markets followed. The one my friend Marnie hooked us up with in Greensboro was also great. I had Covid so was carefully masked and took frequent breaks. Some of the people who came said they came primarily to support Local Cloth. Locally, Lowes opened their parking lot to a market of artists and while it was extremely cold, it was also very successful—we were selling hats and mittens! And finally, The Big Crafty turned out to be a bonanza. A market held in the arena in downtown Asheville was packed and people were there to shop.
With that, our merry band of marketeers took a break for the holidays, but we did sneak in a smaller Big Fiber Giveaway in Ashe County. We had a few items that were specifically for people who had requested them—a loom for a teacher who lost hers, a sewing machine for another person. We also had two more sewing machines that were snapped up quickly and as much yarn and fabric as we could stuff in the van. Again, almost all of it was off to appreciative new homes.
We’re not done. I keep thinking the donations will slow down but they just keep coming. I have a hard time keeping it all straight—someone is aging out of her crafty years, another is clearing the decks for new ideas, and another just has too much—and that’s just this week!
This weekend we went to Yancey County with a whole bunch of stuff—truck-fulls that came from Virginia including sewing machines and sergers, an SUV full of yarn from an estate in Burke County, a rented van full from Charlotte and other donations from folks closer to home. The generosity and the need. We’re the conduit between the two.
We had a great turnout, it was a beautiful day, the smiles were so wide. It’s a small community up there and people were seeing their friends for the first time since the Storm. It was pretty dang touching.
And the beat goes on—a group in Tryon wants to replicate our Giveaway. When we booked “Another Big Fiber Giveaway” in Swannanoa in April, the Tryon folks decided they'd come to us--we had the system down. The Swannanoa event was close to the heart of some of the hardest hit parts of the area. We raised money for local food pantries and gathered 30+ boxes of food. It was on the same day as Knit for Food, a national fundraiser for Feed America, Meals on Wheels, World Central Kitchen and Team No Kid Hungry, which raised $530,000+ nationally and over $3000 locally. It was indeed a three ring circus. We had another amazing group of volunteers who got it all done. I am so grateful.
Now we are taking another little break. We need to get the Studio back open (hopefully in the next month...) and then the Anything Fiber Sale. Still plenty going on, just different. Meanwhile, the green has returned to the land and one of these days the trucks removing the trees will move on to other neighborhoods. It ain't over yet.
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